Problem With Snails

[joegwendolyn]

Hello can anyone recomend a way to get rid of snails in my tank I think they have come of the live plants but there starting to take over my tank any advice please

 

[fluttermoth]

The best way is to make sure you're not over-feeding (as that's the most common cause of snail population explosions) and drop in some lettuce, cucumber , or I'm told carrot is very good, last thing at night, and then first thing in the morning all the snails will be stuck on it and you can take it out, snails and all.

You may have to do this a few times to reduce the population to a mangeable level; it is very hard to have a tank that is totally 'snail-free'.

Or assassin snails, but i don't know anything about them.

 

[BigbruiserAl]

Few threads on this this week so advise:

Please use the search engine top left thats what is does
As flutter said less feeding is key
Assassin do eat them but at a rate of 1-2 a week so best not to use them as as that sole purpose

N.B please can some other members stop suggesting buy fish that eat snails, most if not all of this fish need specific care/tank volume and should not be bought for this reason

 

[fluttermoth]

N.B please can some other members stop suggesting buy fish that eat snails, most if not all of this fish need specific care/tank volume and should not be bought for this reason

+1 for that!

No fish should ever bought to eat/clean/control anything, including poop, algae and snails; that's the fishkeepers job

 

[clintsc27]

Man I bought some live plants from a local fish store and within two weeks all of a sudden I had a snail in my tank. Then in a few more days I noticed another one. Then after about two months I had buttloads of snails all over the place. They were in the tank big and small (I had one that got REALLY big), in the #41#### filter, everywhere! One way to help control them is every time you see a slime ball (clear slimy loogy/mucous looking stuff) in you tank remove it, cause these are the packs of snail eggs they continously lay. Also the lettuce trick does work pretty well, they will all cling to it, maybe not all but a good portion.

I had a whole bunch for a while but you know I just let them go and after so many months they started to die off. Then they practically dissapeared, I didnt see a single snail for at least 4-5 months. I kept digging empty snail shells out of the gravel and stuff and figured they all died out (they will bury themselves). But recently within the last couple weeks all of a sudden I have seen a couple of baby snails reappear, and Im starting to see some eggs again. So who knows.

Chances are once they get in there and lay eggs, I guess those eggs can lay dormant for a while based on my experience. So you can eradicate the living but they will eventually reappear. I just let em go, I like having an eco-system of many different species. I got tropical fish, live plants, snails, salamanders, and even live river mussels I caught in the Savannah.

 

[thisguyek]

N.B please can some other members stop suggesting buy fish that eat snails, most if not all of this fish need specific care/tank volume and should not be bought for this reason

+1 for that!

No fish should ever bought to eat/clean/control anything, including poop, algae and snails; that's the fishkeepers job

well said!

keep at it with the veggies. if you dont mind having one or two snails in there... dont worry about it too much. theyre still helping cleaning the tank. I'm not sure what species travel with plants and how they look when big... but ive heard of some people letting theyre hitchhiker snails go(while keeping them in check) and have been rewarded with some really beautiful specimens!

 

[StandbySetting]

Just leave them be, they're your best friends not enemies, just ensure that you don't over feed and food doesn't go uneaten, also don't leave decaying plants or detritus in the tank for them to feed on and they'll be fine.

I wouldn't ever recommend adding a fish for the sole purpose of eradicating snails.

 

[micko]

It would seem your problem isn't the snails but your over feeding. If those snails weren't there your water stats would probably be terrible. Reduce your feeding

 

[clintsc27]

I agree with everyone else, just leave em alone. Like I said mine got out of control for a while but I did reduce my feeding and after a while they dissapeared (until recently they started to return). Besides they will help keep the tank cleaner a little. They say that cleaning things like poop and algae is the fishkeepers job, but I dont agree with that. I dont like to clean really anything in my tank other than the gravel every once in a while. Think about it, to have other organisms do the cleaning is exactly how it is done in the wild. The closer you can get to that wild setting, the better off your fish will be.

 

[fluttermoth]

Think about it, to have other organisms do the cleaning is exactly how it is done in the wild.

But that's not how it's 'done' in th wild. Firstly, in wild waters you have a constant through flow of fresh water; our filters replicate this to a certain extent, but the wastes are still in the same body of water rather than being washed downstream, or out of the lake or whatever.
Also, have you looked into a wild stream recently? The sheer amount of gunk that's in most of them would make my stomach turn if I had to have it my tank.

 

[trianglekitty]

Just leave them be, they're your best friends not enemies, just ensure that you don't over feed and food doesn't go uneaten, also don't leave decaying plants or detritus in the tank for them to feed on and they'll be fine.

I wouldn't ever recommend adding a fish for the sole purpose of eradicating snails.

Why do you say they're your best friends? Honest question- I would think a large snail population would create more waste and raise bioload. I know shrimp have very low bioload, but I thought snails are actually pretty dirty. Are they in some way beneficial to your tank?

I've been using a snail trap with carrot inside- in truth I really haven't had all that much luck reducing the population. I probably do overfeed though- I'm trying to do better with that.

 

[StandbySetting]

They're fantastic, they eat algae, eat up left over food, some even feed my fish.

They eat decaying matter which if left will rot and create ammonia anyway, when they eat it they take nutrients, proteins etc from it so the resulting excrement will actually rot and create less ammonia than if the food they eat was left to rot.

 

[fluttermoth]

Some will also help keep your substrate turned over (I know the jury appears to be still out as to whether anaerobic sand beds are harmful to fish, but a bit of insurance against it happening in the first place would seem sensible IMO).

 

[trianglekitty]

They're fantastic, they eat algae, eat up left over food, some even feed my fish.

They eat decaying matter which if left will rot and create ammonia anyway, when they eat it they take nutrients, proteins etc from it so the resulting excrement will actually rot and create less ammonia than if the food they eat was left to rot.

Wow, so all this time I've been fussing over getting rid of them when there wasn't much need. And since I rather like them, this is great to know! Thanks!

 

[millym]

hi
after keeping tanks for over 7 years with no snail probs ,around 6 months ago i ended up with an explosion of round snails in all 3 of my tanks , to the point where in the mornings the whole front of all tanks was covered, looked terrible, i was always reluctant to use snail killer on new plants as i keep shrimp in 2 of the tanks so i must have had hitchikers from some plants. Anyway to cut a very long story short, i bought 10 assasin snails - 3 in my betta 40L & the rest in my 4 ft tank, i also use a bit of airline and at least twice a week would siphon out all the snails i could see- tipping the water back into the tank, finally ive seen a huge reduction in numbers in those 2 tanks. I still have a snail problem in my other 40L shrimp & chilli rasbora tank but as i know assasin snails can attack small shrimps i havent put any in there. Im using the airline siphon & pieces of lettuce overnight to get the numbers down. I dont mind snails but when it gets to siphoning over 200 in one go i knew there was a problem. If Im honest think i was guilty of overfeeding too!! (My 2 mature yoyo loaches in my 4fter were obviously sick to death of the taste of snails and werent eating many)